The Greens urged the responsible authorities to implement the highest EU environmental standards, in particular the Directives on integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) and environmental liability.

This legislation prioritises the protection of public health and the use of the best available technology for that purpose.

We faced resistance from the industry-friendly approach of the EPP and Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), which turned this petition on environmental concern about dioxins into a strategic industrial issue, bringing Industry and Entrepreneurship Commissioner Antonio Tajani to the committee for the debate.

The Greens changed the initial text from a request for EU funds to boost the plant's competitiveness into a position on environmental provisions specifically invoking the polluter-pays principle for the recovery of the affected area.

Unfortunately, the Italian government prioritised industrial interest over public health and did not make the plant's private operator liable.

Some weeks later it even enacted a special decree allowing the plant to re-open.

This decree was designed to override a previous judgement handed down by a local court which had ruled that the plant should not operate and had sequestered a significant sum of money from its owners to be spent on the area's environmental recovery.